Tag: Health

Now & Forever ABCs (Olivia, Alphonz & Lorenzo)

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Olivia Fiona, Alphonz Hector, and Lorenzo Orfeo Abategiovanni

9 October 1981 & 14 June 1968
Methodist

Lorenzo is the elder brother of the twins, Alphonz and Olivia.  Lorenzo and Olivia own the little bistro in Falcon Grove called Lorenzo’s, all three share in the work of operating it.

The trio were born in New York, though when the twins were very young their parents died and they came out west to live with their aunt Helen in Portland.

Olivia has always had a keen head and eye for business, Lorenzo was a master in the kitchen, and Alphonz preferred to work with his siblings than for some uncaring boss.  Lorenzo had another small restaurant in Portland, and Olivia was often helping him keep his books and giving him very sound advice even before she was out of eighth grade.  By the time the twins graduated they were full employees of Lorenzo’s restaurant.

While the trio were very fond of their aunt and the home they had with her, they were none of them extremely fond of the Portland area and elected to leave.  Lorenzo hired a manager and a chef for his place there and left Helen in charge of overseeing that it was run properly and they moved north in 2004.

That year Olivia started taking ill.  She was diagnosed with cancer and started on treatments.  Between radiation and chemo Olivia was feeling just as ill, and by 2009 she was tired of them.  She begged her family to stop taking her to the treatments, and was told she had only months to live.

Lucas and Yvette learnt of the young woman’s story and offered to try a treatment that could possibly help — some people had successfully held other advanced cancers at bay with it, though none with her particular form and advanced stage, that they were aware of.

The treatments proved successful, though Lucas and Yvette still refuse to accept payment for it — they had refused initially since they couldn’t even promise it would help (though it certainly couldn’t hurt), and now because they feel it unethical to start charging her simply because they discovered they were right.  Olivia is still dying, but she has an estimated couple of years now instead of only a few months.

The brothers, who adore their sister and have always been extremely protective of, tend to treat the Conners family with a certain VIP status, trying in whatever ways they can to show their gratitude for every day they still have with Olivia.

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Now & Forever ABCs (Lucas)

Published on by Jaye3 Comments

Doctor Lucas Garcia Conners

15 May 1966
Lutheran (ELCA)

Lucas is an N.D. and certified for surgery.  He was educated at the University of Washington and at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland.  He co-owns and operates a naturopathic, homeopathic, and acupunture clinic in downtown Seattle with Yvette.

He tends to look the part of the the hippie doctor with his long hair pulled into a ponytail, and his tendency to dress for comfort rather than professionalism.  His office is even painted in a tie-dye style.  He’s rather popular as a children’s doctor due to his colourful office, and his silly sense of humour and fun — his office is full of toys and odds and ends that he readily lets his patients play with.

In his personal life he is a devoted and loving husband and father, his entire universe revolves around Yvette, Maureen, and Lauren, and for them he would build a ladder to the moon if they took it into their heads to ask for one.

He is an equally devoted physician, taking care to remember his patients and their issues and treatments and speak directly to them rather than always consulting charts.  His memory isn’t perfect, but it’s fairly good, and he has a few magician’s tricks to give the impression it’s better than it is.  Still, he has a reputation among those who’ve met him of really getting to know them, of being willing to help them at all hours of all days, and generally treat them in a way that puts them in mind of the old country doctor in old west stories and TV shows about rural turn of the century towns.

It surprises many, especially those who know how he grew up, just how easily and quickly he took to computerised records, but it was at his suggestion and initiative that the clinic was heavily modernised with all paper records digitised, and all future records kept on computers which have been kept well up to date, though it was Yvette’s idea that the equipment in the place be updated such that all images and similar were processed to computer rather than film — Lucas has a great fondness for darkrooms and development, so hadn’t been in any hurry to modernise in that regard.

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What gives?

Published on by JayeLeave a comment

Okay, we’re all readers here, right?  I mean I can think of few other candidates for followers of an author’s blog, and it breaks my mind to try to imagine a writer who doesn’t read.

Readers are notoriously opinionated people (about books).

So why is it, then, that I’ve only one reply to my question?

I did have one person click like — so I turned Like off for that post because, really?  Why?  What is the magic of the Like button that, not only does everything have one now, but that people will click it on things where it either makes no sense to do so or it is expressly asked not to?

Anyway stress is not fun.  Editing is stressful.  As is the realisation that I’m hitting the final week that 2/3 of my agents say they take to respond.  I’m of a mind to say to Hell with self-publishing and just keep shopping the series out to publishers and agents till I get a bite, but I’m pretty sure I’m nowhere near so patient a person.

Wish me luck, I’m going back to editing now.  At a scene I like, but have this sinking feeling ought to either be axed or relocated.  Always such a bother to figure out if that’s true or not, and then if so there comes the question of which to do.

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And things progress a little more

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Work on Ready or Not is going well, if a bit slowly. I’ve been rather ill, and when that wasn’t sapping my creativity or leaving me with a fever too high for any kind of good sense it has left me far too tired to have much of an attention span or concentration.

Despite that I completed some research I was going to need. For that I really must thank Sister Sylvia Countess of the ELCA Deaconess Community. Without her help I’d have made a mess of things.

I hope this coming week to be in better shape to write again and get back to work on Book 2.

For those looking for news on Book 1, well, Love or Lust still is on target for an end of the year release. What month? What day? No one’s sure yet. It does take a while to edit and proofread nearly 150,000 words, after all. Still, I’m not nervous yet.